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New mother Danielle Fong recalled her delivery at Queen Mary Hospital in January as 'a cruel punishment'. She refused to go back to the hospital to check her wound six weeks later. Apart from the labour pain, Ms Fong said she had to suffer insults from the assistants and rough handling by the doctor.
'I was told by my friend that an epidural can be administered throughout labour until you deliver. However, the assistants told me that is not their practice and there is no way a pregnant woman should deliver a child without any pain or pushing. I have put it in a very nice way how they told me because they were really mean and nasty ... calling me weak and useless and not a word of comfort from their mouths, and the doctor was nowhere to be seen. Finally, I gave in and let them switch off the epidural machine and I tried to push. The assistants again insulted me, saying that I couldn't even push out 's***'. Yes, 's***' was exactly the word they used.
'For someone who has not eaten or drunk for 24 hours, what kind of strength are you expected to have? When I wanted to cry, they scolded me and told me not to do so or I would block my nose which would make the process even harder.
'After almost three hours of struggle, the doctor finally came in and used the forceps to pull my child out. The doctor did a horrible job. She was rough and I could feel lots of pain. She stitched me up like an animal without anaesthetic and I was screaming so loud. She asked for non-dissolvable thread but I begged for dissolvable stitches and she ignored me.'
Lee Chin-peng of Queen Mary Hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology offered an apology to Ms Fong in a letter while pledging to improve patient care. 'The staff might have shouted at you in their efforts to encourage you to push, not realising that their wording was hurtful to you. We apologise for this,' Dr Lee said.
'We deeply apologise for the pain you suffered during the repair of the wound. Women on epidural analgesia usually do not require additional anaesthetic for repair of the wound.